11 September 2007
Lincat combi steamers help roadside café to diversify – twice!
Thanks to Lincat combi steamers, a Lincolnshire roadside café has been transformed not once, but twice since 2001.
When David and Hazel Mather bought the Boundary Café, at Nocton Heath, south of Lincoln on the A15 in 2001, it was a somewhat neglected roadside café. Today it’s one of the most popular route stops in Lincolnshire.
But that’s not all. David and his team have subsequently added not one,
but two successful new arms to the business: an extremely successful
carvery restaurant and a hot school meals service. The business has
recently been re-named ‘The Kitchen’.
The café and restaurant now serves in the region of 1500 meals each week, freshly cooked on site from high quality Lincolnshire ingredients. Added to that, every week day no fewer than 900 local school children enjoy hot meals prepared and delivered by the Kitchen team. Lincat combi steamers, supplied by catering equipment dealer CRS of Lincoln, have played a key role in each step change.
“Our business has changed beyond recognition, twice!” said David. “We have developed a hugely successful carvery and restaurant as well as becoming a preferred supplier of hot school meals. We are building a facility at Nocton Heath to produce in excess of 2000 meals a day for Lincolnshire school children. None of this would have been possible without our Lincat combi steamers. We started out with a 6 grid Opus ClimaPlus model and now we have six Lincat combis, in use every day including two 40 grid Opus SelfCooking Centers.”
He continued…
“In terms of the development of our carvery offering the Lincat combis, which accurately combine wet and dry heat, have enabled us to produce roast meat of the very highest quality, every time. We have found that consistency really is the key to establishing a reputation and encouraging return visits. Our reliance on good quality meat from local sources, combined with the Lincat combis’ sophisticated cookery management programmes, enable us to provide our diners with the high quality they have come to expect. Good food just some of the time is no good at all. The Lincat combis enable us to produce identical results, no matter who is cooking, at every service. The combis also enable us to prepare fantastic fresh vegetables, puddings and pies.”
In July 2006 David attended a meeting arranged by the local education authority for those interested in providing hot meals to schools. By July the first school had already signed up to start taking meals from September 2006. Other schools quickly followed suit. Currently The Kitchen supplies eleven schools with meals every day, and negotiations are proceeding with a further eight. It is a complete service, with the food delivered in hot cupboards by The Kitchen’s own vans, together with all the necessary food trays, serving utensils and cutlery. At the end of the lunch service everything is collected - waste food, dirty trays and cutlery, and returned to The Kitchen for disposal and cleaning.
“It would simply be impossible without our Lincat combi steamers. They are versatile workhorses which enable us to produce excellent home made food, in large quantities to a very tight timescale. The new SelfCooking Center models are particularly valuable. If we’re offering meat, we can cook that over night and hold it at the optimum temperature, without loss of quality until the morning. Or we can cook off, chill overnight and slice the next morning, as we steam the vegetables and prepare the puddings. Finally before the food is placed in the hot cupboards, we use the SelfCooking Centers’ ‘finishing’ mode to bring everything up to maximum temperature without loss of quality.
He continued…
“Our contract states that food should arrive at the school at no less than 63o C. Our food leaves the Kitchen at 92o C and arrives at the schools typically at 82 or 83o C – well above the safety requirements. The fact that the SelfCooking Centers then clean themselves is a huge bonus. We really wouldn’t have time to clean them by hand – it just wouldn’t be possible working to our schedule. When the cleaning cycle is finished they’re really as good as new. It saves so much time, money and effort.”
In addition to the Lincat Opus combi steamers, the Kitchen’s kitchen is equipped with a range of other Lincat equipment including fryers from both the Silverlink 600 and Opus 700 ranges, and a large salamander grill. All of the equipment, with the exception of a 150 litre bratt pan imported from the States, was supplied by Lincolnshire catering equipment supplier, CRS. CRS Sales Manager, Sue Roberts, introduced David to Lincat at one of the company’s Opus SelfCooking Center workshops. Held on a regular basis, at venues throughout the country, these enable caterers to where see Opus SelfCooking Centers in action before they invest. Full details of dates and venues can be found on Lincat’s website: www.lincat.co.uk.
Photocaption: Lincat’s Paul Hickman with client, David MatherFor further information please contact:
Sales information:
Nick McDonald
Marketing and Export Director
Lincat Limited
Tel: 01522-875500
Fax: 01522-875530
Email: nick.mcdonald@lincat.co.uk
Publication or editorial enquiries:
Julie Leydon
Press Officer for Lincat Limited
Tel: 01482-649343
Fax: 01482-646644
Email: julie@bluestormdesign.co.uk